


Pinboard

by V6ilill



Series: The hawthorn and the starling [1]
Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Addiction, Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Autistic Captain, Character Study, Fluff, Gen, Referring to May here, SAM doesn't exist, Symbolism, Team as Family, Weirdness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-02
Updated: 2019-12-02
Packaged: 2021-02-26 04:15:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21647395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/V6ilill/pseuds/V6ilill
Summary: Au - Alex Hawthorne lives.When a recently-revived-from-cryosleep lab assistant falls on top of him, Alex Hawthorne thinks he’s done for. He isn’t - the pod lands just an arm’s length from him and out crawls a woman more at home in a slasher movie.
Relationships: None
Series: The hawthorn and the starling [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1563856
Kudos: 16





	Pinboard

When a recently-revived-from-cryosleep lab assistant falls on top of him, Alex Hawthorne thinks he’s done for. He isn’t - the pod lands just an arm’s length from him and out crawls a woman more at home in a slasher movie.

“Hey there,” he eyes her overly wide grin that seems to widen with every second he stares at it and his arms inch towards the pistols on his waist.

“You’re the space pirate?” she grins “I expected someone with more hair.”

“Not funny,” he says.

“That wasn’t a joke,” she says “Um, I’m not exactly a people person, if I offended you.”

“I’m not a people person too,” he nods.

“So we have something in common!” she beams, or well, grins maniacally “That’s soo cool! Oh, your guns look so awesome! My friend Nate once told me that-”

Alex’s headache increases as he contemplates his choices in life.

-

The lab assistant is named May and has a drug problem, as Alex soon learns. He finds her staring at an inhaler that once belonged to the raiders. She looks to be in her twenties. Alex started drinking in his twenties. Suddenly the girl with a slasher smile seems so much less like a would-be killer and more like a lost youth, doomed to spend the rest of her life suffering from her early mistakes.

Alex takes the inhaler away from her. She looks disappointed. He can relate.

-

“Wow. Your ship is so cool!” she gushes “What’s it called?”

“The Unreliable,”

“Your self-confidence is admirable,” her arms sway up and down “Um, I mean your humility.”

“I named the ship when I was young and it was new. It broke a lot, back then,”

“Is it hard, piloting a spacecraft?”

“Not really. Besides, I have ADA for that now,”

“Who?”

“The Automated Digital Astromancer of my ship. You’ll like her, I’m sure. The question is, whether she likes you,”

“She’s a robot?” May stops and turns to face him, not smiling anymore “My dad was a robot. HAM, Home Assistance Module. They don’t make those anymore, the whole line was discontinued back on Earth.”

“Then you’ll be extra appreciative of ADA, I’m sure. Let’s go,”

He doesn’t ask how she came to be raised by a machine, nor does he question how the robot met his end. It’s not his to know, May would share that herself if she wanted to. Still, he feels a sort of kinship growing - not many people had ever met a sentient mechanical.

-

“So that’s the recovered colonist,” ADA doesn’t greet him, she knows him too well by that point “I expected someone taller.”

“I’m 23! Well, 93! I’m not short, everyone is too tall!” she protests.

“Unfortunately, I’m in dire need of repairs,” she continues, ignoring the lab assistant.

Alex listens, takes notes, and promises ADA he won’t take long.

-

That night, May rummages through his room, searching for the inhaler. Alex hears her almost-silent footsteps in his sleep. He doesn’t fault her - he was once very similar, with wine instead of inhalants. He still is vey similar, bottles upon bottles stored in his kitchen.

When he wakes up, the room is not a mess, as if nothing happened at all. The inhaler is not found. Alex sighs in relief

-

After a while, May’s persistent desire fades. She is still wary around the inhaler, though.

Alex wishes it would be easier for him.

-  
“You know,” says May, fiddling with her own two pistols “There’s such a things as rehab for addicts. Even if you can’t get rid of your bad habit entirely, you could at least control it to an extent.”

Alex sets the bottle of whiskey down.

“I mean, I was twelve when I began inhalin’. Rehab isn’t that bad - assuming it hasn’t degraded in quality like everything else in the future,” she continues.

They are quite alike, yet different still. Alex contemplates the emptiness of the bottle. Whatever May lacked in experience, she certainly made up for in enthusiasm.

-

“We should help these people. Devise some kind of solution for them,” says May as they gun down robots in the geothermal plant.

“Look, I just want to repair my ship and get this over with,” says Alex.

“I’ll think of something then,” May is as sure of that as she is of the sunrise and sunset “You can’t leave without me, right? You won’t.”

“You said you weren’t a people person,” he remarks.

“I’m not. But I can’t stand by and do nothing,” she said “Messing up is bad, but standing idly by is worse.”

“I’ll come with you then,” he decides “Like it or not, we’re a team.”

“Thanks, Al,” she finds a way to make his name even shorter than it already is.

-

“Do you know that a hawthorn is a plant?” says May “It grew quite abundantly where I lived.”

“I didn’t know that,” says Alex.

“The shrub is also called mayflower,” continues May “Curious, no?”

Alex looks her over - she’s a gunslinger gal in flimsy armor, with black hair and tan skin, smooth-talker wannabe, enthusiastic about repairs and spaceships and the stars. Like him. Like him in his youth. Curious indeed.

“Coincidence or destiny?” he poses a rhetorical question.

“You’ll teach me to fix stuff, right?” she poses a rhetorical question too.

“I will,” he promises and the question isn't rhetorical anymore.

-

“It seems you have found a worthy successor in the event of your inevitable demise,” ADA tells him.

“I hope that time won’t come soon,” says Alex as the stars grow closer “I’m not that old, you know - neither are you.”

“You’re not as spry as you were in your youth,” cautions ADA.

Alex says nothing, rubbing his temples. The headaches still plague him.

-

“What were you thinking, charging into that mantisaur nest?” he gives May a good shake, letting the last bits of exoskeleton fall from her charred armor.

“What were you thinking, trying to skip to Monarch?” she retorted “That was completely unnecessary! And that asteroid- you’re no better than me, really!”

She is correct - as reckless as the “lab assistant” may be, Alex is far too careless with his life too.

Once again, May is like a mirror of himself, showing him everything he wants to forget about himself.

He hopes that May, young and bright as she is, can escape that which has already entrapped him.

-

May gifts him MSI safety equipment to replace his old Spacer’s Choice gear. He isn’t sure she fully realizes what that implies. Alex understands by that point that she’s mentally ill in some way. He gets used to her peculiar movements, body language and intolerances.

She’s a loner in a different way - Alex wants to be alone because he has no need of people, May wants to be alone because people burden her. Alex sympathizes. And tales another sip from the bottle while he's at it, until May's icy stare stops him. If he wanted to be a good role model, he'd be ashamed. He's embarrassed anyway. 

-

“Does it feel nice to help those in need, for a change?” ADA asks jokingly.

“Not really,” answers Alex “I mostly do that for May.”

“She’s very calm with killing, that one,” says ADA “Most humans aren’t, be they older or younger.”

“She’s a bit of a special case,” says Alex “It’s nice how she helps people out of sense of duty, while not being particularly empathetic towards them. That way, she’s not particularly opposed for doing the dubious things I’m good at.”

“You’re good at many things,” she teases “Being shot at especially.”

Alex rubs at his arm self-consciously.

-

Alex finds himself getting soft in his old age and trying to put up some front of decency for May, this girl that was quite literally dropped from the sky and into his lap. He finds that a reduced alcohol intake and rate of cranial injuries help with the headaches.

He also finds that grooming a worthy successor is hard work, but very entertaining ("Where does this bolt go, Al? Do I put it he- ow! Hey, don't fret over me, I'm fine it's only a flesh- nevermind! You're like my grandpa or something, I swear,")

-

No matter how many bizarre misfits they meet, the crew of the Unreliable is three - Captain Hawthorne, his aide (some even say his beloved) ADA and the kid, May, who’s older than she looks and far nicer too. No one can tell for certain what her last name is - some say Keo, some say Hawthorne, some say she has none at all. No one can tell for certain what her relation to the Captain is - some say she’s his daughter, some say she’s his sister, some say she’s just his student. But what people can tell you for certain is that no one - not even all the corporations on the Board - messes with this crew.

**Author's Note:**

> I didn't know that mayflower was a name of the hawthorn plant when I started writing for her. Then I realized all the other similarities between May and Alex and this little thought experiment was created.


End file.
